Team Building with Angsana Laguna Phuket

Team Building with Angsana - October 8th 2011, Phuket.

Learning with Mission

Making Teams was appraoched by Angsana in 2011 to arrange a management training weekend for its executive team, coinciding with the opening of a new hotel and a new brand. Senior management wanted the team to come together and examine the company values and focus on mission goals and targets for the following year.

Team Building Objectives:

To practice setting and reaching targets.

To experience the need for change management and moving out of a comfort zone

To understand each other better and learn about other’s behaviour

To consider ways to be more innovative and creative in addressing problems

To work on cooperation and communication

To consider ways in which these skills can be translated into a work environment

Angsana Mission Statement

“We want to build a globally recognized brand which by inspiring exceptional experiences among our guests, instilling pride and integrity in our associates, and enhancing both the physical and human environments in which we operate, will deliver attractive returns to our shareholders.”

Angsana Core Values

Practical

Stylish

Caring

Ice Breaking

We arrived in the Le Meridien resort in Khao Lak on Friday the 7th, and spent most of the day setting up the areas to be used for the team building workshop. These would be a lakeside restaurant which we were taking over for the day, the beach and several salas in the beach side restaurant.

On Friday evening the team got together for a group dinner on the beach, where Making Teams facilitators got to mix and meet with the Angsana team in a get to know you ice-breaking session.

Saturday 8 am

Activity 1: Ice breaking & understanding each other

Blindfold DiSC. This was an activity to learn about each other under difficult circumstances when busy, based on DiSC behavioural analysis. Team members were blindfolded, as one group, standing closely together. The facilitator then read out pairs of words, for example "calm" and "energetic". Participants then grouped themselves into two sets with other people who identified with the same word. During the debrief, teams had to remember which people picked which of the two words. Objectives were to improve understanding and listening skills.

Activity 2: Listen, confirm and anticipate

Don't touch me. Participants had to listen carefully, follow instructions, be proactive and anticipate problems while thinking outside the box. The challenge was to re-arrange the team around an object in the shortest possible time whilst not touching each other.

Exercise 1: Write a "listening" team mission statement

The teams now had to write their first mission statement, based on one of their core values. This statement would put into operation the skills they had focused on in activities 1 and 2, and provide an action plan for following the core values in 2012.

Pay Attention to the Guest Needs

Be observant and alert

Ask questions

Listen carefully, confirm and repeat requests

Anticipate

Offer service before guest requests for it

Note guest Likes & Dislikes and share with team members

Saturday 10.15 to 12.00 pm

Activity 3: Communicate and focus on details

Minefield. This is a classic team building activity to learn about communication, details, observation and alertness.

Exercise 2: Write a "detail" mission statement

Be Detail-Oriented

Listen attentively

Be very observant and alert

Check, double check, and triple check

Pay attention to guest information

Be thorough in following standards

Note guest behaviour: their likes, dislikes, and needs

13.00 to 15.00 pm

Activity 4: Work as a team and cooperate to reach targets

Frenzy. This is an activity to practice knowing your goals, working as a team and performance.